Company Files Cybersquatting Claim Against Twitter Username

Can a Twitter username be cybersquatting? One insurance company thinks so. Here’s an interesting lawsuit I just discovered that attempts to stretch the bounds of the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection act. Insurance company Conventry First has filed a federal lawsuit (pdf ) against whomever is using the CoventryFirst username on Twitter, i.e. twitter.com/coventryfirst. But in addition to complaining about plain old trademark infringement, the company has thrown in a charge of cybersquatting for using twitter.com/coventryfirst. Now, besides the issue that Coventry First is suggesting that having a trademark in a URL directory of your web site can be cybersquatting, it seems to me that in a way they could ensnare Twitter in this battle. After all, it’s Twitter’s domain name that Conventry is considering to be a violation of the anti-cybersquatting act. The lawsuit does ...